Shawn's Big Adventure: Melbourne! Great Ocean Road & The Twelve Apostles

This place was amazing! The drive was about 3.5 hours from Melbourne with a stop in Apollo Bay for lunch. The views along the Great Ocean Road are amazing.. so many nice beaches and cliffs to stop and take in the scenery. There are a ton of photos in the slide show, as well as some cool videos.

Website: http://www.greatoceanrd.org.au
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Apostles_(Victoria)

How they were formed
The rock stacks are the temporary remnants of a retreating limestone coastline, under constant attack by the sea. Cliff faces are being eroded at the rate of about two centimetres each year.

1. Cliff face erosion

Wave action erodes the cliff face,
leaving harder rock as headlands.

2. Caves & arches
Waves eat away the rock at sea level, forming caves on each side of the headland. The caves eventually meet up, forming an arch.

3. Stacks formed
Over time the arch collapses into the sea, leaving a rock ‘stack’.

4. Further undercutting
Further undercutting by waves, and opening up of vertical cracks in the rock by rain and saltwater, gradually reduce the stack to a low platform or reef.
This occurred spectaculary in 2006 making world-wide news.